Monday, July 23, 2007

Damaged Goods: Mind, Music, and Musicophilia

"In 1994, when Tony Cicoria was forty-two... he was struck by lightning. He had an out-of-body experience. 'I saw my own body on the ground. I said to myself, 'Oh shit, I’m dead.' …Then—slam! I was back'... Life had returned to normal, seemingly, when 'suddenly over two or three days, there was this insatiable desire to listen to piano music.' This was completely out of keeping with anything in his past. He started to teach himself to play piano. And then, he started to hear music in his head. In the third month after being struck, Cicoria was inspired, even possessed, by music, and scarcely had time for anything else."

Read the rest here.
Via the always splendid Music Thing, I read with interest that Oliver Sacks has a new book out. This one explore the musical obsessions and transformations of the human mind as brought on by serious brain injury. The book is titled "Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. You'll find it here.

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